


Six - Karfel

by GrumpyJenn



Series: River and the Doctors [6]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-28
Updated: 2012-10-28
Packaged: 2017-11-17 04:56:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/547844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrumpyJenn/pseuds/GrumpyJenn





	Six - Karfel

The Timelash, the Doctor thought uneasily. That was where River was going next, to Karfel, where they had used the Timelash as a punishment - a form of banishment that was ultimately fatal. He and Peri and that - Herbert, was it? Oh yes, him, nice bloke, turned out to be... well - they had made it safely. But the average run of the inhabitants of Karfelon... not so much.

He didn’t like it.

But River looked forward to it; to her it seemed like a more... straightforward adventure, with running and political intrigue and rather less hearts-break than usual. At least she hoped so. And she was taking the part of the girl - Lena? Vena? Yes, Vena - who took the amulet to the other end of the Timelash, so she would get to interact with the Doctor _and_ with young H.G. Wells... and she was looking forward to that quite a bit.

And so she left, and the Doctor was alone with his other wife. But her attention was taken up with something else, and the Doctor seethed with frustration. _Can’t help my River,_ he thought, _can’t talk with Sexy,_ and his thoughts circled around and around until he thought he might go mad, and finally he shouted at the console itself. “What _is_ it, what are you hiding from me?!” He brought both fists down on the console and hit a lever with one, and a panel opened.

_No. Oh no._

It was a sonic screwdriver. _The_ sonic screwdriver, the one he’d given / would give to River, the one where she’d stored herself and he had taken it and run faster than ever before, to get her self, her _soul_ , saved into the hard drive of the Library Planet.

And it was almost complete.

“No. Sexy, _no_.”

 _(not one line)_ he felt in the back of his mind, tinged with grief and regret and a sense of inevitability. And he slumped into a jump seat and cried.

\---/-- 

River came into the TARDIS, feeling like herself for the first time in weeks. She’d been right; she _was_ mostly okay, but this last adventure, with the sixth Doctor being alternately sunny and shouty, had been exactly what she’d needed. And since _her_ Doctor, the eleventh, seemed to have recovered as much as he ever did from something as tragic as the death of his beloved companions, well... maybe they had both recovered. She still wanted to meet the others, but it wasn’t as... _imperative_ as it had been. So she was feeling better as she entered the TARDIS.

“Sweetie,” she said, prepared for anything - an adventure or lovemaking or a good shootout with oh, Sontarans perhaps - but there was nothing. “Sweetie? Doctor? Are you here?” She heard a muffled sound from below the console and went to look for him. The Doctor was in the repair sling, in shirt sleeves and bow tie. “Hello, Sweetie,” she said, and smiled at him.

He looked up from the fiddly little repair he was doing, and gave her a bright smile that was patently false. “River, my bad girl, did you have a good time meeting old H.G.?” His long fingers were still moving across the little mechanical part he had pulled from somewhere under the console and he cursed in Gallifreyan as he cut himself on a pointy bit.

“Sweetie, are you alright?” River stared at him as she spoke. What could possibly have happened while she was gone?

“Brilliant of course, always alright, you know that, just fine, brilliant in fact, oh, I said that already didn’t I, how mmph!” He broke off as she held the sling in both hands and kissed him, but held himself still and unresponsive to the kiss. River stepped back.

“No, you’re not alright,” she said flatly. “What is it?”

He stared at her, trying and failing to stop his lower lip trembling as he whispered.

“Spoilers.”

 

 


End file.
